Nikki Haley's Resignation Letter, the HILL
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November 2, 2018 VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL U.S. Department of State Office of Information Programs and Services A/GIS/IPS/RL SA-2, Suite 8100 Washington, DC 20522-0208 [email protected] Re: Freedom of Information Act Request Dear Freedom of Information Officer: Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552, and the implementing regulations of the Department of State (State), 22 C.F.R. Part 171, American Oversight makes the following request for records. On October 9, 2018, Nikki R. Haley announced that she would be resigning at the end of the year from her position as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (USUN). In her resignation letter, Ambassador Haley thanked President Trump for the opportunity to serve, touted the administration’s foreign policy milestones, expressed her desire to return to the private sector, and assured President Trump she would not be a candidate for office in 2020.1 Despite this assurance, there has been widespread speculation about Haley’s political ambitions, including the possibility of future presidential runs.2 American Oversight seeks records that will improve the public’s understanding of Haley’s actions and communications during her tenure as Ambassador to the United Nations and shed light on how Ambassador Haley has impacted U.S. Policy. Requested Records American Oversight requests that State produce the following records within twenty business days: All email communications of USUN Ambassador Nikki R. Haley sent or received, on both classified and unclassified systems, with the following individuals: 1 The Hill Staff, READ: Nikki Haley’s Resignation Letter, THE HILL (October 9, 2018, 12:45 PM), https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/410577-read-nikki-haleys-resignation-letter. 2 Kambiz Foroohar & Toluse Olorunnipa, Haley for President? UN Diplomats Bet Trump Envoy Has Ambitions, BLOOMBERG (January 11, 2018, 4:00 AM), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-11/haley-for-president-un-diplomats-bet-trump- envoy-has-ambitions. 1030 15th Street NW, Suite B255, Washington, DC 20005 | AmericanOversight.org 1. Mike Pompeo 2. Rex Tillerson 3. John Bolton 4. Stephen Bannon 5. Sebastian Gorka 6. Brian Hook 7. Ivanka Trump 8. Jared Kushner 9. Donald Trump, Jr. 10. Eric Trump 11. Kellyanne Conway 12. Stephen Miller 13. Dina Powell 14. Mari Stull Please provide all responsive records from January 24, 2017, through the date the search is conducted. This request includes all messages on which Ambassador Haley appears (whether in the to, from, cc, or bcc field), as well as all prior messages (whether incoming or outgoing) reflected in the responsive correspondence and any attachments thereto. This request should include any messages sent using personal email in correspondence to other State Department employees or regarding US government business. In addition to the records requested above, American Oversight also requests records describing the processing of this request, including records sufficient to identify search terms used and locations and custodians searched and any tracking sheets used to track the processing of this request. If State uses FOIA questionnaires or certifications completed by individual custodians or components to determine whether they possess responsive materials or to describe how they conducted searches, we also request any such records prepared in connection with the processing of this request. American Oversight seeks all responsive records regardless of format, medium, or physical characteristics. In conducting your search, please understand the terms “record,” “document,” and “information” in their broadest sense, to include any written, typed, recorded, graphic, printed, or audio material of any kind. We seek records of any kind, including electronic records, audiotapes, videotapes, and photographs, as well as letters, emails, facsimiles, telephone messages, voice mail messages and transcripts, notes, or minutes of any meetings, telephone conversations or discussions. Our request includes any attachments to these records. No category of material should be omitted from search, collection, and production. Please search all records regarding agency business. You may not exclude searches of files or emails in the personal custody of your officials, such as personal email accounts. Records of 2 STATE-18-0784 official business conducted using unofficial systems or stored outside of official files are subject to the Federal Records Act and FOIA.3 It is not adequate to rely on policies and procedures that require officials to move such information to official systems within a certain period of time; American Oversight has a right to records contained in those files even if material has not yet been moved to official systems or if officials have, through negligence or willfulness, failed to meet their obligations.4 In addition, please note that in conducting a “reasonable search” as required by law, you must employ the most up-to-date technologies and tools available, in addition to searches by individual custodians likely to have responsive information. Recent technology may have rendered State’s prior FOIA practices unreasonable. In light of the government-wide requirements to manage information electronically by the end of 2016, it is no longer reasonable to rely exclusively on custodian-driven searches.5 Furthermore, agencies that have adopted the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Capstone program, or similar policies, now maintain emails in a form that is reasonably likely to be more complete than individual custodians’ files. For example, a custodian may have deleted a responsive email from his or her email program, but State’s archiving tools would capture that email under Capstone. Accordingly, American Oversight insists that State use the most up-to-date technologies to search for responsive information and take steps to ensure that the most complete repositories of information are searched. American Oversight is available to work with you to craft appropriate search terms. However, custodian searches are still required; agencies may not have direct access to files stored in .PST files, outside of network drives, in paper format, or in personal email accounts. Under the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, agencies must adopt a presumption of disclosure, withholding information “only if . disclosure would harm an interest protected by an exemption” 3 See Competitive Enter. Inst. v. Office of Sci. & Tech. Policy, 827 F.3d 145, 149–50 (D.C. Cir. 2016); cf. Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Kerry, 844 F.3d 952, 955–56 (D.C. Cir. 2016). 4 See Competitive Enter. Inst. v. Office of Sci. & Tech. Policy, No. 14-cv-765, slip op. at 8 (D.D.C. Dec. 12, 2016) (“The Government argues that because the agency had a policy requiring [the official] to forward all of his emails from his [personal] account to his business email, the [personal] account only contains duplicate agency records at best. Therefore, the Government claims that any hypothetical deletion of the [personal account] emails would still leave a copy of those records intact in [the official’s] work email. However, policies are rarely followed to perfection by anyone. At this stage of the case, the Court cannot assume that each and every work related email in the [personal] account was duplicated in [the official’s] work email account.” (citations omitted)). 5 Presidential Memorandum—Managing Government Records, 76 Fed. Reg. 75,423 (Nov. 28, 2011), https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/11/28/presidential- memorandum-managing-government-records; Office of Mgmt. & Budget, Exec. Office of the President, Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments & Independent Agencies, “Managing Government Records Directive,” M-12-18 (Aug. 24, 2012), https://www.archives.gov/files/records-mgmt/m-12-18.pdf. 3 STATE-18-0784 or “disclosure is prohibited by law.”6 If it is your position that any portion of the requested records is exempt from disclosure, American Oversight requests that you provide an index of those documents as required under Vaughn v. Rosen, 484 F.2d 820 (D.C. Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 415 U.S. 977 (1974). As you are aware, a Vaughn index must describe each document claimed as exempt with sufficient specificity “to permit a reasoned judgment as to whether the material is actually exempt under FOIA.”7 Moreover, the Vaughn index “must describe each document or portion thereof withheld, and for each withholding it must discuss the consequences of disclosing the sought-after information.”8 Further, “the withholding agency must supply ‘a relatively detailed justification, specifically identifying the reasons why a particular exemption is relevant and correlating those claims with the particular part of a withheld document to which they apply.’”9 In the event some portions of the requested records are properly exempt from disclosure, please disclose any reasonably segregable non-exempt portions of the requested records. If it is your position that a document contains non-exempt segments, but that those non-exempt segments are so dispersed throughout the document as to make segregation impossible, please state what portion of the document is non-exempt, and how the material is dispersed throughout the document.10 Claims of nonsegregability must be made with the same degree of detail as required for claims of exemptions in a Vaughn index. If a request is denied in whole, please state specifically that it is not reasonable to segregate portions of the record for release.